A Rebrand for ReadWriteWeb

ReadWriteWeb, the popular tech site acquired last year by Say Media, is getting a rebrand and new editorial leadership. The site has been renamed ReadWrite and rebuilt with responsive design—changes that reflect the increasingly fractured digital landscape and growth in mobile devices since the site’s founding in 2003.

Dan Lyons, a veteran technology journalist (Newsweek, Forbes) known for The Fake Steve Jobs blog, was named editor in chief of ReadWrite. He succeeds Richard MacManus, who founded the site and left the company earlier this month.

Lyons, ironically, came to the site via old media contacts. While at Newsweek, he got to know then-Time Inc.-er Josh Quittner, now Flipboard editor in chief, whose wife Michelle Slatalla is the editor of Say Media’s Gardenista.

Lyons said the name change was meant to reflect the change in the digital landscape, complicated by the rise of apps, paywalls and the like since ReadWrite launched almost a decade ago. “There’s a lot more to the world than the Web,” he said.

With smaller screens increasingly becoming the primary screen, Lyons plans to expand the site’s mobile coverage. He also wants to bring in outside voices à la The Huffington Post and get readers more involved “rather than us just banging out articles and praying they read them."

ReadWrite’s new responsive design means users will now have the same experience across desktop, mobile phone and tablet devices, a direction Kelleher said all of Say’s sites would eventually adopt.

“We believe the tablet is the ultimate experience for consuming content,” she said. “We’re on the cusp of the $200 and less tablets. We just really feel this is the best screen to consume the content.”

ReadWriteWeb, the popular tech site acquired last year by Say Media, is getting a rebrand and new editorial leadership. The site has been renamed ReadWrite and rebuilt with responsive design—changes that reflect the increasingly fractured digital landscape and growth in mobile devices since the site’s founding in 2003.

Dan Lyons, a veteran technology journalist (Newsweek, Forbes) known for The Fake Steve Jobs blog, was named editor in chief of ReadWrite. He succeeds Richard MacManus, who founded the site and left the company earlier this month.

Lyons, ironically, came to the site via old media contacts. While at Newsweek, he got to know then-Time Inc.-er Josh Quittner, now Flipboard editor in chief, whose wife Michelle Slatalla is the editor of Say Media’s Gardenista.

Lyons said the name change was meant to reflect the change in the digital landscape, complicated by the rise of apps, paywalls and the like since ReadWrite launched almost a decade ago. “There’s a lot more to the world than the Web,” he said.

With smaller screens increasingly becoming the primary screen, Lyons plans to expand the site’s mobile coverage. He also wants to bring in outside voices à la The Huffington Post and get readers more involved “rather than us just banging out articles and praying they read them."

ReadWrite’s new responsive design means users will now have the same experience across desktop, mobile phone and tablet devices, a direction Kelleher said all of Say’s sites would eventually adopt.

“We believe the tablet is the ultimate experience for consuming content,” she said. “We’re on the cusp of the $200 and less tablets. We just really feel this is the best screen to consume the content.”